“A year ago Ballmer okayed the effort, led by Bill Veghte, who is responsible for both Windows and search. He partnered with marketing boss Mich Mathews, then the two recruited an all-star team from across the company - the best experts at branding, packaging, online advertising, and other specialties….

“The aim of the campaign will be to talk about things you can do with your PC that you could never do before.”

At the same time, over the next 18 months, Microsoft is planning to focus on the synergies of three different Microsoft lines — Windows client, Windows Mobile and Windows Live.